For Books’ Sake

Championing writing by women

Our Mission…

…is to create a community that centres, supports and champions writing by women and girls, challenging inequality and empowering women and girls of all backgrounds to tell their stories and have their voices heard.

Why we focus on women and girls

For Books’ Sake was founded in response to insitutionalised, systemic sexism in the media, publishing and education industries. Some examples of this include…

☆ Books by women women account for an average of only one in four of those reviewed by mainstream media, evidenced by annual audits such as the VIDA Count.
☆ In over a hundred years of the Nobel Prize for Literature, there have only been thirteen women winners.
☆ On GCSE English Literature reading lists, gender equality and diversity is actually getting worse, with only an average of 30% of set texts listed in draft qualification specifications for 2017 being written by women.
☆ At school, girls frequently outperform boys in terms of academic achievement, and have been shown to be more creative than their male counterparts. But figures show a significantly higher volume of girls not in education, employment or training once they reach ages 16-24.

The story so far…

We champion women writers of all backgrounds and career levels via our webzine, campaigning, creative writing workshops, national programme of live events and publishing projects.

We’ve collaborated with brilliant organisations – including World Book Night, The Arvon Foundation, The Lesbian & Gay Foundation, London Rollergirls, Rape Crisis, Womankind Worldwide, arts and literature festivals across the UK and many, many more – as well as growing a global online community of over 20,000, being featured on TV and radio and in print, and celebrated by iconic, critically-acclaimed authors.

Now, we’re building on that foundation to further develop and expand our community, so we can ensure women writers – especially voices from the margins – get the readers and recognition they deserve. And we’d love for you to join us.

Content and Community Policy

We exist to champion writing by women, and to share and celebrate the voices of women from all backgrounds. We won’t share sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, transphobia, transmisogyny, (dis)ableism or prejudice based on ethnicity, nationality, class, gender presentation, language ability, asylum status, religious affiliation or employment.